Dutch Mandel: Spy vs. spy: Designer Henrik Fisker creates some Karma that might come to bite him in the backside

By
Autoweek

May 8, 2008

I have to give Henrik Fisker credit: The man ventured from the cosseting arms of Ford and its associated benefits to start a firm designing cars using the old-school, carrozzeria methods. Never mind that design houses such as Zagato had their heyday a generation ago. His move is the stuff of designer dreams.

But if I give credit, I can also take it away. So consider that done, but not for reason you might think.

Yeah, Fisker most recently finds himself embroiled in a lawsuit brought on by Silicon Valley mogul Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla Motors, which aims to manufacture battery-operated sports cars. Musk accuses Fisker of stealing a design that Musk commissioned Fisker to create for Tesla and using it and proprietary technology in a car--dubbed the Karma--that Fisker unveiled at the Detroit auto show last January.

The courts will determine whether this Karma turns out to be good or bad for either and both.

What sets me off about Fisker, though, is that he and his advisors have done something so ludicrous that it's laughable. No, I take that back: It is offensive and laughable.

Fisker is aiming to manipulate the media. And that right there just pisses me off.

Fisker hired the high-powered Beverly Hills public relations spin house of Rogers & Cowan to release "spy photos" of his Karma in so-called first-drive tests.

Ha!

Are we to get all giddy and excited about these photos, complete with "camouflaged" car, that we will run the photos ad infinitum--thereby somehow validating and strengthening Fisker's position outside the courtroom and inside the court of enthusiast public opinion?

As a media professional I am appalled, but perhaps I should not be. I suppose these La-La Land flakmeisters (and the obsequious, fawning, sycophant media with which they deal in the so-called star business) are used to spoon-fed, fabricated stories created to make their myriad celebrities look good.

C'mon, guys: sending out Fisker "spy photos" is akin to having paparazzi on retainer and on call to "capture" your client flashing some genitalia.

Oh, never mind. I forgot about whose scruples we were talking.

Note to Fisker and advisors: With this move you've done a great disservice to the honorable and skilled profession of public relations. And you've turned at least this journalist off when it comes to believing anything you will now try to push my way.

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